Field Ramble

On this episode we meet Will Burns to hear about his latest poetry collection Natural Burial Ground. Many of you will know Will from his fantastic (lockdown set) novel The Paper Lantern, a portrait of a transforming social & physical landscape during the strangest of years. It is a book flooded with new found time unlike Natural Burial Ground. Instead there, Will’s voice is o

On this episode we meet up Vida Adamczewski and Catherine Prasifka. First up, Vida to discuss Amphibian her vividly inventive short story collection. It is provocative storytelling infused with a radical compassion that finds voice in new places and reimagines the body as a territory, a swamp we are invited to wallow in by the cover. Amphibian is published by the wonderful Toothgri

On this episode of the Ramble we meet Richard Norris to hear about his memoir of a lifetime in music, Strange Things Are Happening. The book spans the entirety of Richard’s career from an early pivotal meeting with John Peel, via the birth of Acid House to Californian adventures with Joe Strummer. But Strange Things Are Happening is much more than a series of anecdotes. At its he

On this episode we speak to author Niamh Mulvey about her upcoming debut novel The Amendments. Many of you will know Niamh from her short story collection Hearts and Bones. (Head back to episode 6 of the pod if not to hear our interview with her shortly after H&B’s publication.) With The Amendments (published by Picador on April 11th) Niamh takes the titular story from the co

On this episode we hear from Sinéad Gleeson about her upcoming debut novel Hagstone. Set on a rugged island somewhere in the wild Atlantic it centres around the life of Nel an artist who draws inspiration from the landscape, folklore and unexplained phenomena that surround her. The island is also home to a reclusive community of women, the Inions, who task Nel with the creation of

On this episode we meet Balsam Karam to hear about her latest novel The Singularity. Set in an unnamed coastal town the story follows the impact of one woman’s death on another. It is a study of loss, migration and motherhood and a book that remains with you long after you’ve put it down. Through bold formal experimentation Balsam builds a language of post trauma, moving from s

On this episode of the Ramble, an interview with Magogodi oaMphela Makhene in which we discuss her stunning, debut short story collection, Innards. Set in Soweto (where Magogodi was raised) her stories map the lives of a small group of residents living under and after apartheid.By turns shockingly violent and deeply funny Innards is beautiful wrought from the first page. It is fict

On this episode of Field Ramble, an interview with Aniefiok Ekpoudom to discuss his incredible work of narrative non fiction Where We Come From. Set between communities in South London, South Wales and the West Midland’s Neef’s book documents the rise of UK Rap and Grime. Beginning with the tenacious community hubs of Pirate Radio in Birmingham under the guiding hand of Cecil M

Field Ramble is back with award winning Irish novelist Mary Costello to hear about her latest short story collection Barcelona. It follows firmly in the footsteps of her debut novel Academy Street ( Novel of the Year 2014, The Irish Book Awards) and her first collection The China Factory in its fearlessness. Never afraid to shine a light on our darker side, Barcelona is unsparing i

January is grim, there’s no two ways about it. So here are two fantastic debuts to keep you tucked up indoors and out of whichever storm has just landed. First off a chat with Lottie Hazell whose novel Piglet is published on 25.01. An unrelenting story of compulsion and unfulfilled hunger, it majors on love, class and the lack at the centre of modern life. (It also has one of the